When did you last review your website profile? Can’t remember? Then it’s out of date and not working for you. 

Lawyer profiles are the most-read section on law firm websites. They are also the most readily adapted law firm marketing materials, so there’s no excuse for letting them languish. If you’re submitting a proposal to, or meeting with, a prospective new client, you can tailor your profile to suit that client’s needs. A profile is a work in progress, like a will.

Like any other piece of good writing, your profile should keep the reader in mind. There’s a very . . . [more]

Apparently some of the British rioters have been communicating using Blackberrys. Which resulted in a suggestion that Blackberry should suspend its instant messaging service until things quiet down.

That kind of reaction never ceases to amaze me. 

As if when that was shut down, the riots and destruction would stop because the malfeasants couldn’t communicate any more. And of course consider the effect on the average Blackberry user who is without service as a result. Attempts to shut the entire internet have not stopped people from doing what they are doing, let alone 1 mode of communication. That’s no different . . . [more]

When you teach at law school, as I have, you become familiar with a variety of reasons as to why students choose to study law—perhaps there’s a history of lawyers in the family; or their parents want them to do something, anything professional; or they want to right wrongs, get that BMW, enter politics, point damning fingers at witnesses… Even with those students who wound up in law school with apparently only a shrug for a reason, some explanation eventually surfaced.

Now there is a novel explanation—at least for a small portion of the student body. Two recent studies have . . . [more]

In early July, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of Bill 30, An Act respecting bargaining units in the social affairs sector and amending the Act respecting the process of negotiation of the collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors. The bill was originally declared unconstitional by the Superior Court of Quebec in 2007.

In coming to its decision, the Court of Appeal relied primarily on two Supreme Court decisions: 2007’s Health Services and Support – Facilities Subsector Bargaining Assn. v. British Columbia and Ontario (Attorney General) v. Fraser, decided in April of this . . . [more]

The Clock for the Long Now, a project of the Long Now Foundation, is intended to keep time accurately for 10,000 years. It was conceived by Danny Hillis in 1986 as a way of connecting us with future generations. Unable to predict what the world would look like in 10,000 years, but faced with the challenge of developing an object that would last that long, keep time accurately over the duration and be useful, the designers were forced to abandon short term thinking in favour of the long term. They had to deal with the most fundamental issues such as . . . [more]

Last year, when Thomson Reuters acquired the Canada Law Book Company, we expected that CLB’s President and CEO, Stuart Morrison would enjoy a well-earned retirement, after winding up all the Cartwright Group businesses that West didn’t acquire. That is why we were shocked to learn that he died of leukemia on Saturday. . . . [more]

Does anyone know if there exists a comparison tool regarding the coverage of the major online subscription databases (such as Quicklaw and Westlaw)? I am envisioning a simple tool that would indicate their coverage of various courts over time, so one could know at a glance which database to consult for finding a particular case. I know that each database documents its own scope, but I was wondering if anyone out there has undertaken the project of compiling that information into a quick comparison chart. I realize that it would be a lot of work to keep up-to-date, but I . . . [more]

I am having an interesting day. Interesting in a cursed way.

Before I left for the day last night I was made aware of some “first thing in the morning” research needed for a 9:30 meeting. A simple case-gathering task looking for the most authoritative Alberta Court of Appeal decision on a point of law. No problem.

Also before I left for the day, I started the firm’s memo template, typed in the “you asked me to find” statement, did a very quick search of the CED headings (one not quite relevant hit, pasted into the memo) and a quick . . . [more]

As a self-employed lawyer, you are directly responsible for your business expenses. So what would happen if a serious accident or illness prevented you from working?

Just because you can’t work doesn’t mean your business expenses suddenly stop. You’ll still owe rent, equipment lease payments, and utilities. In addition, you probably have employees with families who depend on your ability to pay a salary on time. 

You’ll need money to keep the doors open and the lights on so you have something to go back to when you recover. If it looks like you can’t return, you’ll need to cover . . . [more]

These are notes are from a panel discussion session at the American Bar Association 2011 conference in Toronto last Friday. Panelists included Arthur G. Greene, Boyer Greene LLC, Bedford, NH; T. Andrew Brown, Brown & Hutchinson, Attorneys at Law, Rochester, NY; Thomas C. Grella, McGuire Wood & Bissette PA, Asheville, NC; Ken Young, Young Mayden LLC, Charlotte, NC; and Mark Robertson, Robertson & Williams, Oklahoma City, OK & co-author of Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour. Moderator was Prof. Gary A. Munneke of Pace University School of Law, White Plains, NY. Note: these are . . . [more]

It sounds like a scary title, and it probably is. It had Lee Berlik saying,

Will this be my last tweet? Attending “the Perils of Social Media”

Dominique Sheldon of Wildman Harrold spoke about behavioral advertising, and the legal risk it can entail. There can often be unintended consequences as the result of business use of social media.

Clients will want to advertise online, irrespective of the potential for backlash. It’s a growing market, and it’s where consumers are spending their time. Zenith predicts an explosive growth of online advertising in the next few years,

…internet advertising continues to

Thomas Edison’s visitors, so the story goes, had to push hard to open his front gate: he was using their energy to pump water up to his house. This “crowdsourcing” his water supply was a trivial exploitation and might even have benefitted his visitors by helping them (ever so slightly) stay in shape. Your visits, whether you know it or not, also pump water for a bunch of “Edisons” every day, and it’s not clear that you’ll regard this exploitation as entirely harmless. 

I’m speaking, of course, of your visits to websites. And the “Edisons” in question here are . . . [more]